Jon Rahm is happy to be a winner again on the PGA Tour, his victory at the Mexican Open on Sunday breaking a drought that had stretched until last June’s US Open triumph.
He just hopes he has finally calmed down some of the critics.
“I got a little tired of answering questions about stats and putting and short game and this and that,” said Rahm, who, to be fair, started the week with a career low in strokes gained (132).North Dakota on Tour) and around the green (173dr), numbers that had led to some testy interview exchanges in recent months.
“That’s the game. He knew he was improving, he knew he was seeing results, and this week he has shown it.”
Rahm prepped for this week’s tournament at Vidanta by donning “fully baked” vegetables during last week’s guest at his local club, Silverleaf Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. He then came out and led from tail to tail for a one-shot win over Tony Finau, Kurt Kitayama and Brandon Wu, while ranking 18th.the on the course with just over 3 ½ strokes gained with the putter. he was 22North Dakota around the greens and, as expected, the Tour leader in shots won: off the tee, second in that category for the week.
“I played amazing and had incredible control of my game,” Rahm said of his first 36 holes, which he played at 12 under par. “It seemed like nothing could really go wrong.”
Rahm credits his Sunday run alongside Tiger Woods at Augusta National in his last start for putting him back in the winner’s circle. Rahm, who had posted nine top-10 finishes since his breakthrough at Torrey Pines, tied for 27th.the at the Masters, but he gained confidence in that particular round.
“I was a bit technical in my approach,” Rahm said. “I’m a sensation player, and that Sunday I told myself just go out there and hit the golf ball, take shots, watch the ball fly and execute, and hit a low 3 without having my best material on a tough day. . So, I applied the same thing this week, minimal technical thinking and just visualizing the ball flying off the shot and coming back to my true self, and I really saw the difference.”
As far as hitting the ball, Rahm was focused this week, especially on shots into the wind. He hit one of those shots, the tee shot from him on the par 3 17the Sunday’s hole, before narrowly missing the 11-foot birdie that would have made his final hole less stressful.
“I thought the putt was the absolute center of the hole and it just snapped to the left at the end,” Rahm said.
Mexico Open full field results at Vidanta
Rahm actually missed about half a shot on the greens on Sunday, and he made just over 50 feet of putts each day of the weekend after totaling nearly 200 feet in the first two rounds.
“I had my chances, I had my putts and I just didn’t hit them,” Rahm said.
But overall, he was encouraged by his performance, particularly two decisive putts on Nos. 14 and 15, the first to birdie from 11 feet to take the solo lead for the last time and the last from 6 feet to maintain that lead.
“That [putt on 14] It was a good putt that I saw go in, and it was a really good picture,” Rahm said. “Then putting a par putt on the 15th was also huge because if he had hit back after that tee shot, it would have been a huge loss.”
Instead, it was a great victory.